How much is Royal Mail really worth?

Questor Editor John Ficenec looks at why valuations of the firm vary by
billions of pounds, and what investors should do with their stake

The valuation of Royal Mail has caused political fallout and red faces amongst the bankers who ran the sale process, but why are we getting so many different numbers?

These are not small differences either, at £4.5bn, the difference between the lowest and the highest values mentioned for the 500yr old postal group are bigger than the entire GDP of countries such as Niger, Andorra and Malawi.